Budget Concious Gamer build advice requested.

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Semni Istiqlal

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Feb 25, 2014
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I'm interested in putting together a gaming PC where Bang for your Buck is key. I'm looking for good performance at a good price, I'm willing to overclock and fork out a bit more cash if it improves my cost/performance ratio.

I'm located in Canada and have been trolling through PartPicker but would like the advice from others as I do not have the most experience with figuring out which components to go for. Here's what I've got so far, alternatives and advice welcome.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($156.98 @ Newegg Canada)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($112.98 @ Newegg Canada)
Motherboard: Asus M5A99X EVO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($113.00 @ Vuugo)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($170.98 @ Newegg Canada)
Storage: Seagate 600 Series 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($149.99 @ Canada Computers)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card ($249.50 @ Vuugo)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($109.99 @ Memory Express)
Power Supply: Corsair CSM 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($108.98 @ Newegg Canada)
Total: $1172.40
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
 
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Rammy
For over $100 cheaper, that is a much better gaming platform.

2Gb GTX770 > 4GB GTX760 in almost every possible scenario, mainly due to pricing. As you point out, the 4Gb GTX760s aren't far off GTX770 money, and it's very unlikely that the extra Vram will make more of a difference than a stronger GPU.

You could still do to half the memory. 8Gb is loads, and you can always add more later if it becomes an issue.
The one scenario I have in which 8Gb of memory isn't enough for gaming is when I was running two EVE clients (and a bunch of other stuff) so it is conceivable you might need it, albeit fairly unlikely.

Otherwise, you are pretty much good to go. You can get it under $1000 fairly easily with a bit of tweaking, or you can spend the...
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Rammy

Rammy

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Sep 3, 2012
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Bang for buck? Nope.

The 8320 is a good choice. More or less everything else isn't amazing in terms of value for money.
H100i is too expensive relative to the performance it brings. Something cheap in the Hyper 212 kind of range is always going to destroy it for value for money.
The motherboard is nice but fairly expensive. A 970 series motherboard is likely to offer better value.
16Gb is memory is overkill for a gaming system.
240Gb SSD is nice to have, but not a terribly efficient way to spend money.
Define R4 is great, but not cheap.
PSU is expensive and not all that amazing. You can almost half the budget here.
Finally, for a gaming machine, the graphics card if fairly weak, relative to the overall spend. Also, if you do want to stick to ~$250 then a GTX760 might be a better option. If you save in other areas though, you could easily have $350-400 to spend on graphics for the save overall budget which will comfortably get you an R9 280X or GTX770.
 
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i would ditch the cooler and go with 8 gigs ram and a cheaper motherboard and loose the ssd
then sink that money into a better graphic card , overclocking your cpu wont add much frames like a better graphic card will
 
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Semni Istiqlal

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Feb 25, 2014
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4,510
The budget's already there, just looking for suggestions to get more bang for about the same buck. I'm willing to spend more if it improves the ratio of money invested to performance out.

As for the games. Well, it's mainly the likes of the ARMA games, EvE online, Men of War, WoT. I hope that makes the rationale behind fast loading rates and lots of memory suddenly highly attractive.

Keeping this in mind I've been poking through the graphics card lists and I've come across a GTX760 with 4gb as a possible alternative to the GTX770 with 2gb of internal memory. With them going for more or less the same price how worth it is losing a bit of grunt in favour of extra vram given my propensity towards memory piggies of games?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($156.98 @ Newegg Canada)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($28.50 @ Vuugo)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($79.00 @ Vuugo)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($170.98 @ Newegg Canada)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.99 @ DirectCanada)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card ($379.99 @ NCIX)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($109.99 @ Memory Express)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($55.99 @ NCIX)
Total: $1046.42
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-25 14:58 EST-0500)
 
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Rammy

Rammy

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Sep 3, 2012
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For over $100 cheaper, that is a much better gaming platform.

2Gb GTX770 > 4GB GTX760 in almost every possible scenario, mainly due to pricing. As you point out, the 4Gb GTX760s aren't far off GTX770 money, and it's very unlikely that the extra Vram will make more of a difference than a stronger GPU.

You could still do to half the memory. 8Gb is loads, and you can always add more later if it becomes an issue.
The one scenario I have in which 8Gb of memory isn't enough for gaming is when I was running two EVE clients (and a bunch of other stuff) so it is conceivable you might need it, albeit fairly unlikely.

Otherwise, you are pretty much good to go. You can get it under $1000 fairly easily with a bit of tweaking, or you can spend the full ~$1200 by splurging on a GTX780 or something. If you are only using a single 1080P monitor, then you might as well stick with a GTX770 though.
You could also make a case for an i5 build, on the logic it'll come out to a similar total and offer better single threaded performance, but there isn't anything wrong with the FX.
 
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